Trenton hotel board to ask city council for $3 million

The only thing in the way of stopping the Trenton Marriott from becoming a Wyndham franchise will be city council.

On Monday, the Lafayette Yard Community Development Corporation approved the head of the board to negotiate and finalize agreements with the incoming management group and Wyndham.

The three resolutions — allowing LYCDC Chairwoman Joyce Kersey to execute the contracts with Wyndham and management group Marshall Hotels & Resorts — were all opposed by board member Michael McGrath.

“I’m definitely not signing off on approving a contract that hasn’t been presented to me,” he said.

Marriott is slated to pull out of the city’s only hotel on June 14, along with current management group, Waterford Hotel Group.

LYCDC Chairman Joyce Kersey called the June date “D-Day” because the public board will still need approximately $3 million from city council for transition costs and renovations to keep the hotel running.

“I wanted to know if you plan to come back to council for the full body and give a presentation of the funds, what the expenditures look like, what the other company is willing to invest and what the bottom dollar line is going to be?” asked Councilwoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, who attended Monday’s meeting.

Kersey responded that the board plans to deliver a presentation to council on May 7.

Wyndham is seeking a roughly $2.4 million product improvement plan (PIP) from the city before it signs on as a franchise for Trenton’s only hotel.

The hotel board authorized on Monday making a combined payment of $49,000 as a franchise application fee with Wyndham.

In addition to the PIP, Marshall is seeking transition costs of approximately $600,000 to remove the Marriott footprint and replace it with Wyndham.

A three-year contract is still under negotiation with Salisbury, Md.-based Marshall to take over as the management group on June 15, but Kersey hopes an agreement is reached in “a day or two.”

Marshall also has a consulting management agreement with the hotel until June 14.

The 197-room hotel, which opened in 2002, is plagued with approximately $30 million in debt, which includes a $14 million city bond, a combined $9 million in state loans and more than $7.3 million owed in a note to the Trenton Parking Authority.

The LYCDC also authorized Kersey to send a response to the New Jersey Department of Treasury regarding payment on a $5 million bond and loan of $675,000 from the state.

“We don’t have any funds to do it,” Kersey said after the meeting of the annual request from the state. “So we will just notify them that we don’t.”

Another option the city has is to sell the hotel.

Trenton-based international businessman Shelley M. Zeiger, who helped bring pizza to the Soviet Union, said last week he is interested in purchasing the hotel.